German Rail Bans English Words Like “Business Class” and “Lifestyle”

Skift Take

In an effort to maintain purity, the rail might ostracize some international travelers for whom English is the closest they can get to understanding German. Unlikely to impact business or the travel experience overall.

Travelers on Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s state-owned railway, are used to being addressed in a peculiar language peppered with ponderous English words and phrases, such as Neue Snackbox für Kids. But rail bosses have decided that this creeping use of Denglisch has gone too far. They have issued staff with a glossary of 2,200 Anglicisms which they are henceforth discouraged from using.

Words such as bonus, business class, lifestyle, non-stop and package deal must be replaced by their German alternatives, though some are deemed to have been sufficiently absorbed into German to be acceptable: brunch, container, sandwich and VIP, for instance.